The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector having one row of terminals soldered to a top surface of a circuit board and another row of terminals soldered to a bottom surface of the circuit board.
An electrical connector is commonly mounted on a circuit board for electrical connection purpose. A plurality of terminals of the connector electrically connects with corresponding circuit of the circuit board by soldering.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional connector disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application No. 85213592 comprises an insulative housing 4 and a plurality of terminals 20 retained in the housing 4. Each terminal 20 includes an arcuate contact end 201, a securing portion 202 and a solder tail 203. The solder tail 203 is bent to be parallel to a circuit board (not shown) and soldered to soldering conductive pad or lead located on an upper surface using Surface Mount Technology.
FIG. 2 shows another conventional connector disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application No. 84104534. The connector has a plurality of terminals 30 each including an arcuate contact end 301, a securing portion 302 and a solder tail 303. The solder tail 303 is substantially perpendicular to a circuit board (not shown) and soldered thereto using Through Hole Technology with solder sites located on a lower surface of the circuit board.
Nowadays, a connector tends to accommodate as many terminals as possible due to an increase in signal transmission frequency. In the prior art, a soldering process is performed on only one side of a circuit board so that a high density of soldering sites are provided on the circuit board thereby impeding the soldering process of the terminals and adversely affecting soldering quality.
In addition, a connector is required to be fixed on a circuit board by board locks before undergoing wave soldering. As shown in FIG. 2, a board lock 33 assembled to the connector comprises a retaining portion 331 and a pair of locking legs 332. The retaining portion 331 is received in an insulative housing of the connector and the locking legs 332 are inserted into a hole of a circuit board thereby securing the connector to the circuit board. However, the locking legs 322 engage with the hole only along opposite edges thereof so that such a connection is not reliable.